Last Cinderella Episode 4 Recap: I Can’t Let Him See This Side Of Me

I know some people are upset with the current direction of this drama but since I’ve been on the Rintaro/Sakura team since I saw the poster, it’s working for me. The drama is full of clichés but I still find it entertaining and the Bickering Couple rocks!

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Episode 3 ended with Chiyoko planting a wet one on Rintaro. Is that where Episode 4 begins? Nope. Instead, it starts with a sad-looking Sakura standing in front of a drugstore. What did she buy? A pregnancy test. Well, since I don’t think she’s carrying the next messiah, I doubt she’s pregnant. On her way home, she runs into Rintaro and quickly hides the test which prompts him to try to guess what she bought. Condoms, medication for PMS? They continue to bicker in the elevator but when Sakura starts to look for her keys, she unintentionally shows him the test.

They go to Rintaro’s apartment which is full of plants. Is he worried he might run out of oxygen? He asks what she’ll do if pregnant and she starts to talk about keeping it. But she doesn’t want to involve Hiroto since he’s too young. Rintaro implores her to take the test quickly since he can sense that she needs the support but she’s too chicken and runs out.

The next day, Sakura and Hiroto meet for lunch at the only restaurant in town (Ken’s place). She tells him Rintaro won a trip to the hot springs and that they’ll all be going. He’s not happy that Rintaro will be there and she reassures him that she has no feelings for him. They introduced this “jealousy” thing in the last episode and appear to be running with it. He’s worried that Rintaro might have a thing for her and she explains that he doesn’t treat her like a woman. Is Hiroto only acting on his jealousy or also on behalf of Stalker Girl?

Sakura sees a photo of babies and tries to bring up the pregnancy but can’t get the word out.

The next morning, Sakura wakes up with a fever. She still wants to go on the trip but Rintaro won’t let her because as a potentially pregnant person, her health should be a priority. He takes her to the hospital.

They return with medicine and he notes that she doesn’t have any food in her house. He considers getting something from the store and she tells him not to bother because she’ll just have Hiroto do it. He agrees and it’s like whenever she mentions Hiroto, he remembers it’s not his place to take care of her. He hands her the phone to call but she confesses that she doesn’t want him to care for her in that state. Rintaro thinks that’s a bad idea and for once, says something intelligent – people like to feel needed. He leaves after telling her to take her medicine and call Hiroto.

At the gym, as usual, Shima arranges dates with married men but NoHei intervenes and reminds her that adultery is wrong. She tells him to mind his business and he says that any friend of his wife is a friend of his so he’s only looking out for her. Perhaps he would have a leg to stand on if the only thing stopping him from having sex with her himself wasn’t his uncooperative penis.

At the hot springs, Rintaro can’t stop thinking about Sakura and even when he goes up to sing karaoke, hears her telling him to stop being full of himself and just sing. Is hearing voices the first sign of love or madness? Or just a sign that you’re an awful singer?

Hiroto’s text message wakes Sakura up. He wishes her well on her trip. Hungry and thirsty, she steps out to get some supplies only to find that Rintaro had left a bag on her door. He also included a box of condoms. lol.

At a hotel not too far away, Shima is giving Kohei a foot massage. It probably has something to do with nerve endings in the feet being connected to other parts of the body but don’t they realize that this is something he should be doing with his wife?

He asks her why married men and she explains that she just wants something uncomplicated. Then she talks about how having a family is a miracle which leads me to believe that her marriage ended because she couldn’t have kids. Of course, NoHei really isn’t pay attention to what she’s saying.

NoHei gets home late and Miki doesn’t like it, especially as he’s leaving her with his annoying mother. They start arguing and the stupid woman comes out and tells her not to bother him when he comes in late. Miki notices that his socks are inside-out and because he’s an idiot, he overreacts and raises her suspicions.

The next morning, Rintaro stops by Sakura’s to find her healthy. He mentions the pregnancy test and since she needs his moral support, gets dragged in. He asks her why she’s procrastinating and it’s basically, the longer she puts it off, the less time she has to deal with a bad result.

She finally takes the test and after freaking out about looking at the results, does and like every single viewer guessed, is not pregnant.

She’s disappointed and puts on her act and chases Rintaro out of her place.

The ladies meet up at the salon and make everyone uncomfortable by speaking frankly about their periods and menopause. At Ken’s place, the guys are also having their own TMI conversation about taking supplements to prevent old-man smells (WTF?). They start talking about virility diminishing with age and Nohei proudly tells them about his impotence. Dude, at this rate, Miki will be the last to know. But knowing how Rintaro runs his mouth, once he finds out they are married, he will surely spill the beans.

Back at the salon, the ladies convince Sakura to arrange a meeting with Hiroto so she calls him. He answers with only panties on and with Momo’s arms wrapped around his shoulders, tells Sakura that he’s ended things with her. I know the relationship is all fake and stuff but this was the first time I wanted to punch the kid in the teeth. As far as I know, he’s not a villain so at some point, we’re supposed to root for him but how can we do that if he’s a dick? He agrees to meet with them and after hanging up the phone, Momo asks if they are really over. So he did end things with her but I guess needed one last romp for the road. He packs up his things and I wonder where he’s going to stay now.

While working as an insurance salesman, one of Kohei’s client’s kids stains his shirt with a crayon. It looks like lipstick and coupled with the strange receipts she finds in his pocket, Miki is now very suspicious.

She talks it over with Sakura at her salon and of course, Rintaro has to throw in his two cents. She says that if NoHei’s cheating, he’s really going to get it and Rintaro notes that women often go after the other woman instead of their man. When Sakura starts to give Miki advice to fight for her marriage, Rintaro scoffs at her for her inexperience. So here’s my thing: if he’s such a bastion of knowledge, how come his dumb ass is unmarried and stuck in an unrequited love with someone in a fake relationship with another guy?

They start bickering as usual then Miki reminds them that she’s the topic of conversation by blurting out that while during their relationship, she’d felt that she’d be stupid not to marry him, there has yet been a time that she’s been glad that she did. Wow and I really don’t have anything to add.

For some reason, that causes Sakura to start hitting Rintaro and making strange gestures and all I know is that our girl sure likes to touch him. lol

Sakura meets Hiroto at the skate park and explains why she doesn’t have a gift from the hot springs. He wonders why she didn’t call him and she says it wasn’t important because Rintaro took her to the hospital. That upsets him because if she had any regard for his feelings, she wouldn’t be talking about another guy all the time. Now angry, he leaves her and returns to his practice. Hmm.

Back at Miki’s, her daughter gets her period and while she wants it kept under wraps, the mother-in-law wants to celebrate. This is one time I don’t think the witch was trying to be mean and overbearing – they just got their wires crossed. It’s not like they told her they didn’t want a celebration and she went ahead anyway.

Stalker Girl looks at photos of Rintaro on her phone as she waits for him to pass by. She’s happy when she sees him but the proverbial smile turns upside down when she sees him talking to Sakura.

It’s his usual spot where he watches kids play baseball. They talk about how his dreams of becoming a baseball player were shattered when his team was banned from going to Koshien and he never got a chance to be scouted. Her childhood dream was to become a mom but from a recent hospital visit, she learned that her period was late from a hormonal imbalance. So even if she gets married, it might not be easy to get pregnant.

That leads him into talking about a time he thought his girlfriend was pregnant and being disappointed when she wasn’t even though she was glad. It made him feel like she didn’t want to marry him. Or maybe, like Sakura points out, she just wasn’t ready to be a mother.

Rintaro comforts her by saying that anything can happen. Then one of the kids sends the baseball towards Sakura and instead of being an “old-man” and getting out of the way, she just sits and stares at it till SuperRintaro jumps in front and protects her. LOL. Is this the best the writer could do?

Anyway, he pretends to be knocked out and Sakura screams like a hysterical wife. We get more skinship from our couple while Crazy Chiyoko watches from a distance.

When the kids come to apologize, Rintaro pretends to be in pain and says he can only be healed by joining the game so they do. It’s just an excuse to give us more Rintaro/Sakura cuteness. Which only makes Chiyoko crazier.

Hiroto isn’t having such a hot time at the skate park and constantly messes up. Does the Rintaro/Sakura relationship really bother him this much? If so, he’s got something in common with Chiyoko which clearly means they need to be together. lol.

The ladies gather at Ken’s place. It’s finally time for them to meet Hiroto. Big-mouth Rintaro is there and asks Miki how things are going on the cheating front. Now, Shima knows and reassures her that he’s not cheating.

Shima stars to flirt with Rintaro, saying that as they are both single, they should meet up some time but Sakura hovers around them and tells him to turn her down. He’s absolutely not allowed to date her friend. Care to share the reason why, Sakura-san?

Hiroto is on his way to the gathering when Chiyoko calls him. She wants him to come over and threatens to hurt herself if he doesn’t. So she’s not just crazy but we’re now in makjang evil, second-lead territory here. She’d fit right in on Stairway To Heaven or Phoenix.

He rushes over to her as Sakura and her friends wait for him. She’s drunk and calls him her servant when he walks in. She was lonely and needed some company. She’s drinking a bottle of wine and he struggles to take it from her and ends up throwing it against the wall.

She was only drinking to forget Sakura then she suddenly looks at the wine stain on the wall and says it reminds her of something – the scar on her back. They are rich, right? Can’t something be done with plastic surgery?

She starts to yell and hit him because he’s the reason she can’t date properly. Everything is his fault. The injury (presumably) and he couldn’t even get Sakura to fall for him. He forces her into a hug to calm her and sincerely apologizes. Then he starts to kiss the scar. There’s still no clarity on their relationship but I hope beyond all hope they aren’t siblings (it wouldn’t be the first time in a Japanese drama).

Back at the restaurant, Sakura is still waiting and remembers that she’d also stood him up. Rintaro leaves, looking sad.

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Japanese rom-coms are notorious for love triangles where the woman dates or is in “love” with the wrong guy for majority of the show and then towards the end, she realizes she’s in love with her friend/boss/robot. So far, Hiroto/Sakura is turning out to be one of those waste-of-time relationships. From the preview, it looks like he might fall for her for real and maybe they will ride into the sunset but I suspect what happens regarding his feelings for her will have a greater impact on his relationship with Chiyoko than anything else. Losing her ‘servant’ might be a wake up call that she needs and if she isn’t already, might be the catalyst that leads her to finally visit a shrink. I call her crazy but it’s obviously a lot deeper than that and she needs to get some help with dealing with her trauma.

But this is just a prediction because after all, we do have the cliche of fake-love-turned-real and now that Hiroto no longer lives with Momo, who knows if he’ll end up moving in with Sakura?

The stuff about Miki’s family life is still so boring but I guess it’s here to stay. I do like that she’s not a complete pushover with Kohei so there’s hope for her.

The preview looks quite exciting and it’s nice to finally see Hiroto having genuine feelings for her (that’s what the freaking synopsis is all about) so yay for that. Plus it looks like we’ll finally see the fall out from the Rintaro/Stalker kiss. I’m looking forward to that.

And yes, i would looove to root for Hiroto if only i knew a little bit more about him. He’s clearly a “dick” there, jealous or NOT.

About Rintaro/sakura’s thing, they are seriously a cute couple. I can only root for them for the moment. i hope it’ll change lol I don’t know how it will turns out. But please, no cliché. Looking forward to episode 06!

Oh my this drama is the hottest out now. I was sooo anxious to see episode 4 when it showed her taking a pregnancy test. Would’nt that have thrown the viewers for a loop if Sukura were pregnant? Definitely would’ve kept me glued to my laptop, hitting the refresh button for the latest episodes.
I like Rintaro because he’s a mature professional man. But not going after Sakura who’s been free a free agent all the years that he’s known her makes me kinda doubt them being compatible. If was supposed to be, why wait until she’s hooked up with some stud to take an interest? Now that’s cliched. Me personally would have believed in them being together if he had always loved her and wanted to be with her but never had an opportunity. He can date Momo for all I care at this point, don’t want him anywhere near getting between Sakura and Hiroto. No relationship is perfect, I hope the writers let the lovers go through the motions and eventually get their act together in the end.

I loved the scenes with Rintaro ans Sakura, they are my favourite couple, for me they are like a breath of fresh air!
Both of them are genuine people and it’s good that they’re starting to open up their hearts, even if it’s just a very tiny bit.

Hiroto and Chiyokrazy are the total opposite…even though they are the “beauties” of the story they are so troubled and unhappy with their lives, too gloomy.

But I have to say I am happy that MAYBE Hiroto is starting to become a bit more natural…in the past episodes evenwhen he was smiling to Sakura his expressions where so forced. Glad he left Momoron.

Anyway, as you said, I think he will have loads of problems once he’ll fall for real, because I think Chiyokrazy won’t stand his happiness or him giving attention to any other person that is not her. And I think that’s also why he became a playboy.

Still think that the scenes with Miki’s family and those with Kohei and Shima are just a waste of time.

Yes, Momoron (lol, nice name) said that he wasn’t allowed to be serious about anyone and I’m sure it has a lot to do with Chiyokrazy( and great name!). You can see how she manipulates him to keep him under her thumb.

My only wish is that her opponent was someone a lot nastier than Sakura. Can you imagine how she’ll feel when she finds out the truth? I know Rintaro said women only go after the girl but I think this is one instant it’s right. Chikoyo needs to be taught a lesson.